Tsekwon
Tsekwon (Tsekwon taishte), also known as Classical Orinco, is the linguistic predecessor to modern Orinco, one of chief languages of Sekowo. Tsekwon was spoken in Carcosa and the surrounding region during the 2nd millennium BCE. Tsekwon is still used as the liturgical language of Orinco Polytheism, and many Orincos, primarily religious leaders, continue to use the language. As part of a wider Orinco nationalist movement in Sekowo, Tsekwon was revived during the 25th century and became an official language of Sekowo with an estimated 2 million native speakers (most younger than 16) and some 6 million secondary speakers, but the Tsekwon revival movement has since declined. Phonetics Tsekwon is phonetically remarkable on account of its large inventory of dorsal consonants. There is also a rich set of pharyngeal obstruents. In fact, there are a greater number of distinct phonemes in Tsekwon than in any other Terran language. Obstruents Sonorants There are a number of sonorants as well: Nasals *Bilabial: m *Labiodental: nv *Alveolar: n *Velar: ng Laterals *Alveolar: l *Velarized: lh ("dark l") There is also the rhotic retroflex /r/ and the semivowels /w/ and /y/, corresponding, respectively, to /u/ and /i/. Vowels There are also several diphthongs resulting from a pure vowel and a glide: :ay (ai), aw (au), :''ey (ei), ew (eu), :''oy (oi), ow (ou), :''uy (ui) --------------------------------------------------- Phonetics Tsekwon is phonetically remarkable on account of its large inventory of dorsal consonants. There is also a rich set of pharyngeal obstruents. In fact, there are a greater number of distinct phonemes in Tsekwon than in any other Terran language. Obstruents Sonorants There are a number of sonorants as well: Nasals *Bilabial: m *Labiodental: ɱ *Alveolar: n *Velar: ŋ Laterals *Alveolar: ʟ *Velarized: ɫ ("dark l") There are also the semivowels /w/ and /y/, corresponding, respectively, to u and j. Vowels There are also several diphthongs resulting from a pure vowel and a glide: :ay (ai), aw (au), :''ey (ei), ew (eu), :''oy (oi), ow (ou), :''uy (ui) ---------------------------- Accent Accent is tonal, not stress-based, and is determined by the quantity of the vowel. There are two types of accents: acute, and circumflex. Acute accent is a rise of nearly a third tone and a fall back to the base tone in the following syllable. Circumflex is a rise and fall in one long syllable. The rule guiding tone placement are as follows: *There can be only one tone per word. A tone fall on either the last (ultima), the second-to-last (penult), or the third-to-last syllable (antepenult). *The accent falls as far back in the word as is possible according to the rules. *It falls acute on the ultima if it is long and both the antepenult and penult are short. *It falls circumflex on the penult if the antepenult is long and the ultima is short. *If neither of the two previous rules apply, it falls acute on the antepenult if it is short, and circumflex when it is long. Word Structure There are several basic rules concerning the structure of words: # If a word does begin with a vowel, it is short. # When a word ends in a consonant, this consonant is directly proceeded by a vowel. When a word end in a vowel, the last three phonemes are "vowel - consonant - final vowel." # There can never be consonant clusters composed of more than two phones. If one should occur through some lexical process, the sounds are elided into only two; the rules guiding this operation are not precise, but it generally involves the absorption of the stop consonant into the preceding fricative or sonorant. Word Formation There are several affixes used in word formation. *''-tulh'' signifies someone performing an action; "one who actions" *''-me:l'' shows a place where an action is performed; "the place where..." *''-ourne'' conveys a sense of distrust and evil *''-tatsan'' is an abstract idea *''me:qle:s'' is something hidden *''bi:rush'' is related to books or writing *''e:lonv'' is something that moves Nominal Morphology Tsekwon is a highly inflicted language with the tendencies of an agglutinative language transitioning into a fusional language. Case Tsekwon is an ergative-absolutive language. The ergative case marks subjects of transitive verbs while the absolutive marks objects of transitive verbs and subjects of intransitive verbs. There are, however, parallel nominative-accusative forms used in certain circumstances, nominative marking the subject of transitive and intransitive verbs, and accusative marking the object of transitive verbs. The genitive case can act as the possessive, the objective, the subject, the partitive, and several other semantically genitive function. Prepositions conveying a movement to ("to," "towards," etc.) take the genitive. The dative denotes the indirect object and the entity for whom the action is beneficial. Prepositions conveying a set position ("in," "at") take the dative. The instrumental is the means by which an action is performed; this case can act as the agent in passive constructions, and prepositions conveying a movement away from ("from," "out of," etc.) take the instrumental. The vocative is the case of direct address. Number There is a singular, a dual, and a plural. The dual is used to denote things that occur in pairs and occasionally two of anything. Person A sort of enclitic person particle often occurs after the case ending. It is more limited in scope that pronouns, and it is an optional addition to the stem. Gender Tsekwon has only natural gender. That is, personal names and pronouns have certain gender-driven characteristics, but most words do not distinguish such a dimension. State There are certain special constructions in Tsekwon that "morph" the shape of words into broad lexical categories. Depending on the "state" of the noun, only certain cases are available. The null state (status nullus) is used in all instances not including those occupied by the other states; no modification is made to the root. The reductive state (status reductus) is used in appositives and emphatic vocatives. The absolutive state (status absolutus) is used in relative clauses and with certain prepositions. The construct state (status constructus) is used in genitive possessive constructions. Declensions There are two major noun/adjective classes: the thematic and athematic declinations. The former places a "theme vowel" between the root and the inflectional ending while the latter does not. The "-" separates the parts of the ending. The first part is the theme, the second is the number indicator, and the third is the case indicator. Since these various parts are somewhat fused, the number and case indicators are often one unit. The endings in parentheses are the synthesized written forms; the are often alternative endings are well. For instance, in the ending ''-o-yo-s'' (nom/erg dual), the ''-o-'' is the theme vowel, the ''-yo-'' is the dual marker, and the ''-s'' is the nominative/ergative marker. The singular has no marker; thus, all singular forms have only two parts: the theme and the case marker. The instrumental case is irregular in that the theme vowel and the number marker have merged, and the singular case ending is different from the rest. * the actual form has done away with the intervocalic glottal stop, resulting in the lengthening of the vowel. ** there are two forms of the nominative singular; these are not interchangeable and are inherent to the given word. * the plural endings often elide the glottal stop (if there is one), and the vowel cluster that follows is simplified into /e:/. In effect, the ending root vowel is removed and the ''-e:-'' acts as a thematic vowel. Thus, the word upsangus (nom/erg sing., the root is upsangu-''), ''upsange:sh (nom/erg pl.), upsange: (abs. pl.), uspange:n (acc. pl.), etc. However, the instrumental singular has no glottal stop to be elided, and therefore upsangutsos and not upsangetos. ** only used when the root ends in an /i/. For instance, phurxis (root is phurxi-'') is ''phurxi: in the genitive singular, but upsangus (root upsangu-'') is ''upsangui in the genitive singular. *** there are two forms of the nominative singular; these are not interchangeable and are inherent to the given word. States ''Status Reductus'' The reductive state is formed from the simplest, most basic root. The roots of thematic nouns/adjectives are already sufficiently reduced; the roots of athematic words need to have their final vowel stripped off. This new form is used as the appositive simply by following its antecedent; it acts as an emphatic vocative by taking the athematic vocative endings. For example, the reduced form of psi:lajon is psilaj. ''Status Absolutus'' The absolutive state is formed by adding the augment se-'' to the beginning of the noun. If the word begins with a different vowel, then the vowel is simply lengthened and the /e/ is omitted. The absolute form has several uses: first, it can be the head noun of a relative clause. That is, the antecedent is repeated, placed in the absolute state, and then declined according to the noun's purpose in the clause. The absolute state can express the nominative, accusative, and genitive cases. The others are expressed with the dative-instrumental case, which is declined as: Another use of the absolutive state is in participial phrases, where it acts as the nominative head noun modified by the passive participle or the absolutive noun modified by the active participle. For example, ''psi:ljon becomes sepsi:ljon in the absolutive state. ''Status Constructus'' The construct state is formed much like the reduced, but it goes a step further and removes all final consonants so that the noun is even less complete. For example, psi:lajon becomes psi:la. A noun in this state acts as the possessor in such a phrase, with the possessum (the possessed term) in the genitive case. The construct state is indeclinable, although it can occur in any of the grammatical functions associated with the various cases. Pronominal Morphology There are personal, interrogative, and demonstrative pronouns. Personal Personal pronouns are declines for case and number. Gender is assumed to be common or masculine, and can be specified as feminine with the addition of a final ''-ta'' suffix. Interrogative The interrogative pronouns are declined in the same manner as the athematic normal nouns. Demonstrative The demonstrative pronouns are decline for number and case: Verbal Morphology Verbs are conjugated for person, number, time, aspect, mood, voice, and valency. The Tsekwon verb is a "verbal chain" composed of each of these segments. The first slot is mood, the second is voice, the third is valency, the fourth is the verbal root itself, the fifth is person/number, the sixth is time, and the seventh is aspect. An additional either slot is available for enclitics. The first, second, third, and eighth slots can be omitted in many circumstances, but the fourth, fifth, six, and seventh are almost alway in use. Mood Mood can be the indicative, subjunctive, optative, imperative, and injunctive. The indicative makes statements assumed to be true or real; the subjuctive and optative are used either independently in jussive, potential, optative, etc. uses, and in several special clauses; the imperative gives commands; and the injunctive is used in several clauses, but it is rare and almost archaic. *The imperative also involves the removal of all but the first, fourth, and fifth slots. Voice and Valency Voice and valency are separate slots, but their interrelation affects case usage. Valency can be transitive, intransitive, or impersonal. Only some verbs are so-called "ambitransitive" and are capable of being both transitive and intransitive. Because there is no morphological means of distinguishing the transitive from the intransitive, context and syntax must be used. All verbs, however, can be in at least one of intransitive or transitive and the impersonal; that is, the impersonal valency is universal among verbs. In transitive verbs, there can be both an actor and a patient, as well as a possible second patient in the dative case. Intransitive verbs use the nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive systems, as some voices of the verb agree with subject of the action, with neither actor or patient clearly defined. There is generally only a subject of intransitive verbs, the equivalent of the object being expresses by other means. In impersonal verbs, there is no actor and the patient is optional. Voice can be active, passive, antipassive, or middle. In the active voice, the verb matches the morphology of the actor (in the ergative case). In the passive, the verb matches the morphology of the patient/subject. In the anti-passive, the verb matches the morphology of the actor, which is always in the absolutive case. In the middle voice, the verb marches the morphology of the actor/subject and the patient/object, as both are contained in the head noun (the middle voice is essentially reflexive). erg. = ergative; abs. = absolutive; instr. = instrumental; acc. = accusative Bold terms are those with which the verb agrees. The specific semantic meaning of the various forms are given below: Transitives The active transitive conveys a simple action. The entity performing the action is ergative, and that receiving it is absolutive. The passive conveys the action with similar neutrality, although it is often used to emphasized the patient over the actor. The antipassive strongly emphasizes the weight of the action on the actor and is often translated with "for himself." It is somewhat like a weak reflexive. The middle is a strong reflexive: the patient and actor are one in the same. Intransitive The active intransitive once again conveys a simple action; however, the distinction between actor and patient is blurred. The proper terminology is "subject." The subject is simply the concern of the action, the specific amount of reception or cause of the action is unknown. The antipassive intransitive is entirely different; it acts similarly to a result clause, often translated with "and thus..." as an introduction. The reflexive intransitive is very much like the active, but it has a higher degree of reflexivity, the subject clearly in part causing the action. Impersonal The impersonal forms convey a general lack saliency and certainty. The passive impersonal can have a valency of zero and thus specify no actor or patient whatsoever. The only actor is a so-called "dummy" pronoun, or the "4th person." This form refers to no persons and carries no semantic value; note then, that the impersonal passive must take the 4th person singular. Examples moiru:m- = man ; ffosha:- = hog ; khailen- = god ; Painge- = to kill (naturally transitive); mouron- = to die (naturally intransitive); Note that all of the terms in the two rightmost columns are optional. The verb agrees with the leftmost term. In addition, the translations are not precise, as English cannot capture the nuances of the Tsekwon verb system. Person and Number Person and number are fused together. There are first and second person singular, dual, and plurals. The third person is available only in the singular and plural. The fourth person exists in all numbers. Because person is built into verbs, verbs with pronominal subjects do not have to have actual pronouns accompanying them. Time and Aspect There is a present, past, and future time. The meanings are obvious. There are also perfective, imperfective, continuous, and simple aspects. The perfective denotes completed actions; the imperfective denotes actions spanning into the present; the continuous denotes actions repeated or continuous during their time; and the simple implies nothing with certainty, but has the hint of completed action. Enclitics There is a large category of verbal enclitic particles that denote ideas such as productivity, intensity, importance, etc. There can be several enclitics added to any given verbal stem. Several of the most important are listed below: Participle, Gerunds, and Infinitives The basic verbal nouns are formed by the removal of all but the voice, and aspect slots. The four aspects in this case imply tense to some extent, although the exact meaning is up to context. The perfective has a pluperfect tense "feel," the imperfective can convey the simple past, the continuous the future, and the simple the present. Infinitives are the basic form with no additions. The gerund is formed with the particle "la:nv" placed before the verb. The infinitive and gerund do not use the 4th or 5th slots, but the participle, being an adjective, is formed by using these case and number slots. The participle must agree in case and number with the word it is modifying. Syntax Some mention of syntax has been given in the preceding section. For instance, the agreement of verbs with the various arguments and the uses of the cases. What is left to be discussed are the issues of word order, mood, and clauses. Word Order Tsekwon word order is only loosely set on account of its heavy inflection. In simple indicative clauses, word order is generally SOV, although SVO is common as well. In interrogative clauses, brought on by the enclitic particle "-ute:l," the order is often VSO. When an affirmative answer is expected, the order is VOS; when a negative answer is expected, the order is SOV. The possessor precedes the possessum, and the noun often precedes the adjective. Relative clauses follow their antecedent. Mood There are several independent constructions that the various moods can convey. Subjunctive The only independent use of the subjunctive is as the jussive. The jussive is best translated as "may I," "may you," "let him," etc. It is a sort of weak imperative. For example, e:-mexta:n-t means "let him see." Optative The optative can be used in statements of wishing, potential, and deliberation. The first uses the optative and the particle "qan." For instance, qan o:-mexta:nom and can be translated as "oh that I might see." The potential use has no particle. o:-mexta:es means "you might see." The deliberative use follows a vocative of some kind: o: khailene, o:-mextan'e:n? means "O god, ought we to see? The deliberative is automatically a question. The vocative often uses a complementary exclaimation "o:." If no vocative is available, this particle can be used on its own. Clauses Relative The relative clause is the only one that uses the indicative mood in the main verb. The clause is formed by repeating the antecedent in the status absolutus. For instance, mexta:n-am khaile:n-o se-khaile:non paingetu:ta ffo:fa-'e:, means "I see the god who killed the hogs." The relative clause is se-kaile:non paingetu:ta ffo:fa-'e:. The "se-" marks the status absolutus and begins the clause. Conditional Conditions are expressed by a mix of the subjunctive, indicative, and optative moods, and either the particle gwa or kwe. Conditions do not use the time slot. * No aspect or tense is used for the future less vivid. Other Clauses The subjunctive is used in result and purpose clauses while the injunctive is used in indirect statements and questions. Result clauses are formed with the particles kwo:s (so much, so great), and that gwa:n. The latter initiates the clause while the former is the so-called "trigger" that makes the clause possible. The verb inside of the clause is subjunctive. The trigger is used with an adjective: for instance, "it was so cold that I shivered." The "so" is the trigger kwo:s, the "cold" is the adjective or state that causes the result, and the "that" is the clause initiator gwa:n. The verb "shivered" would be subjunctive. The purpose clause is similar, but it only has the initiator particle gwa:n. The indirect statement uses a main verb such as "say," "think," "fear," “ask,” "know," etc. The statement clause is normal except that the verb is in the injunctive mood. The indirect question is used when the main clause has an interrogative pronoun or adjective, as in "I want to know what they are doing." The italic clause is the indirect question. Such a clause simply uses the injunctive. Coordination Either shenv or te is used as "and." ou is used as "or." Others are in the lexicon section. Negation The enclitic neng is used to negate verbs. Nouns and adjectives are negated by the particle ne. Lexicon The following is a list of common Tsekwon words: Verbs *'khqe : to know *bashat : to thank *bhesti:lh : to eat *kwe:vva : to write *fe:no : to ask/question *gouffo:n : to think *mexta:n : to see *noumir : to name *touron : to say *tse:lo : to certify/ratify Nouns *'lamai : house *noirod : law *'rnavva : food *ffo:sha:n : hog *khaile:n : god *moiru:m : man *moiratu:m : woman *taishte : language Adjectives *'irnas : angry *bhaste:n : good, strong *bhoustom : young *khalai : hot *kwokwai : evil, malignant *pe:ntom : intelligent *shaldo:n : cold *se:nod : old Conjunctions *shenv : and *ou : or *tex : but Prepositions *e: : in *et : to *ek : from Category:language Category:Sekowo Category:Dovani